FROM

Note: In a recent report to Congress, the Bureau of Land Management
included surgical sterilization as option for managing wild horses and
burros. On June 6, the House Appropriations Committee voted to approve an
amendment to the Fiscal Year 2019 Interior appropriations bill that would
give the Secretary of the Interior broad leeway to use such surgeries to
reduce the wild horse and burro population, including through the creation
of non-reproducing or single-sex herds. The Senate Appropriations Committee
is scheduled to vote on its version of the Interior appropriations on
Thursday, June 14.

Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation strongly opposes a shift toward
managing federally protected wild horses and burros through sterilization, a
move that would be dangerous for individual animals while threatening the
diversity and health of whole herds.

Despite the ready availability of safe, proven fertility control vaccines
and public opposition to sterilization, the BLM recently made such costly,
unproven surgeries a key component to the management options it presented in
a report to Congress.

RTF opposes sterilization for a number of reasons:

No clear vision: This shift is not part of a long-term BLM plan for the
future of wild horses and burros. RTF, the Humane Society of the United
States, ASPCA and the American Mustang Foundation presented to BLM and
members of Congress a 2018 plan to transition to humane, sustainable
on-the-range management.

A potentially weakened planning process: BLM’s increased push for
sterilization coincides with an effort by the Department of the Interior to
streamline the National Environmental Policy Act in ways that could
undermine government transparency and public involvement in wild horse and
burro management. In a BLM response to a review of NEPA (BLM Report in
Response to Secretarial Memorandum on Improving Planning and NEPA Processes
and Secretarial Order 3355), the agency listed under wishes for future
categorical exclusions wild horse and burro gathers and removals or
fertility control programs. This would mean that any attempt to reduce wild
horse and burro numbers not necessitate an Environmental Assessment.
Further, the report suggests removing public comment consideration for sale
limitation and euthanasia, as well as limiting any public commenting process
from 30 to 15 days. BLM’s response also suggested limiting Freedom of
Information Act requests.

Lack of study: Small scale, experimental sterilization has not happened on
any Herd Management Area. To carry out mass sterilization without knowledge
of how this would affect long-term health and behavior in herds and bands
goes against reasonable animal management principals.

Field spays too dangerous: In 2013, the BLM funded a $1 million scientific
report from the National Academy of Sciences National Resource Council
(NRC), “Using Science to Improve the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program: A Way
Forward.” In the report, the National Research Council (NRC) concluded: “The
possibility that ovariectomy may be followed by prolonged bleeding or
peritoneal infection makes it inadvisable for field application.” In the
past, BLM has proposed studying tubal ligation, which has never been
performed on horses; hysteroscopically-guided laser ablation, using a laser
to seal oviduct openings, which has never been attempted on wild or domestic
mares; and removing both ovaries. This last surgery, ovariectomy via
colpotomy, is a rare procedure which removes the ovaries by crushing and
pulling them out with a looped-chain medical instrument called an ecraseur.
This procedure opens the mares up to: serious risk from infection;
evisceration (should intestines come through the incision); and
hemorrhaging. There is a high frequency of post-operative complications
affiliated with ovariectomy via colpotomy, some of which can be
life-threatening. Most domestic horses upon which this surgery is performed
are hospitalized for 3 to 7 days and quite carefully monitored
post-operatively for signs of hemorrhage (The Horse.com, Ovariectomy, by
Michael Ball, DVM, Sept. 2001).

Issues with gelding: While less dangerous, gelding stallions is nonetheless
problematic. Gelding a colt that is too young can stunt its growth, while
gelding older stallions risks increased bleeding and requires more recovery
time. Moreover, it would require gelding all the stallions in a herd, as
even a small number of intact stallions can impregnate all the mares in a
herd. Surgical sterilization also changes the behavior of wild, free-roaming
stallions. “A potential disadvantage of both surgical and chemical
castration is loss of testosterone and consequent reduction in or complete
loss of male-type behaviors necessary for maintenance of social
organization, band integrity, and expression of a natural behavior
repertoire,” concluded the NRC.

Unknown cost: There is no known cost associated with sterilizing large
numbers of equines in the field.‎ BLM has not presented an analysis for: (1)
hiring or contracting the larger number of veterinarians and additional
staff sterilization would require, (2) what types of surgeries it would
perform, (3) identified needed facilities where horses would be held
post-surgery, or (4) the cost of gathering, sorting and transporting
captured wild horses and burros. The costs associated with the use of
fertility control vaccines are well known by comparison.

Still more delays: Any attempt at mass sterilization will be met with a
public backlash and legal action by advocates, delaying efforts to reduce
the number of wild horses and burros on the range or the cost of warehousing
captured animals even as a safe, proven technology – fertility control
vaccines – continues to go all but unused. Previous attempts by BLM to study
sterilization surgeries have proven unpopular with the American people, who
polls show overwhelmingly support protections for wild horses and burros,
and problematic in court. For example, BLM in 2016 abandoned a plan to spend
$348,000 on sterilization experiments on 225 mares, including at least 100
pregnant mares, at its Wild Horse Corral Facility in Hines, Oregon, after
public opposition as well as lawsuits filed by at least five nonprofit
advocacy organizations that opposed aspects of BLM’s plan to experiment on
the very horses it is tasked with protecting under the 1971 Wild
Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act.

In 2017, wild horse advocates prevailed in a U.S. District Court case in
which BLM sought to sterilize an entire Idaho herd. The court found that
BLM: has a legal mandate to protect horses’ wild free-roaming behaviors and
manage wild horses in self-sustaining herds; sterilizing wild horses impacts
the herd’s social structure, the wild horses’ behavior, and the public’s
interest in preserving and observing those natural wild horse instincts and
behaviors; BLM must consider the behavioral and social impacts of
sterilization; and that BLM failed to consider the findings the 2013 NRC
report that found fertility control is a viable management tool, while
surgical sterilization methods are associated with significant health risks
and behavioral impacts.

Ready alternative: A cost-effective and humane alternative to capturing and
warehousing wild horses – and to the risks and costs of sterilization — has
long been available, but it is not being adequately implemented by the BLM.
The fertility control vaccine PZP has been shown to be effective and safe. A
non-hormonal vaccine, it has minimal effects on behavior and has proven
successful across species, including on the range and at RTF’s American Wild
Horse Sanctuary, among other projects, for decades. Yet, since 2007, BLM has
never spent more than 3.94% of its annual Wild Horse and Burro Program
budget allocation on fertility control vaccines. BLM’s failure to implement
best management practices resulted in 46,431 wild horses and burros
warehoused in government holding facilities, costing taxpayers about $47.5
million annually to house, feed and care for them in 2017.

TAKE ACTION

You can help defend wild horses and burros from dangerous sterilization
surgeries by calling the member of the Senate Appropriations Committee
before its June 14 vote on the Fiscal Year 2019 Interior appropriations
bill. You can find list of committee members by
CLICKING HERE.

Call (202) 225-3121 to reach the switchboard. Tell the senators that you:

* Oppose any amendment to the Fiscal Year 2019 Interior Appropriations bill
allowing BLM to kill wild horses and burros;

* Oppose any amendment allowing for the sterilization of wild horses and
burros because it is dangerous, unproven, costly and could be devastating to
the future of these federally protected animals;

* Support the use of safe, proven fertility control vaccines for wild horses
and burros.

If you’re asked whether you’re a constituent, tell the staff member that
that you feel it’s important to contact the full committee because its
members set policy for all Americans.

Fair Use Notice: This document, and others on our web site, may contain copyrighted
material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owners.
We believe that this not-for-profit, educational use on the Web constitutes a fair use
of the copyrighted material (as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law).
If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use,
you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.